to agree that a 'fat tax' for airline passengers is fair enough?

[cestlavie]

Story from Australia:

www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22735546-27977,00.html

Basically, that people should have to pay a 'fat tax' for airline flights in the same way that they would for checking in excess baggage. Seems fair enough to me. Planes have limited capacity and weight impacts on fuel costs.

The best defence they seem to have conjured up against it is "it's hard enough that they [obese people] carry that extra weight, physically and emotionally."

Really? Well how about exercising more and eating less then.

Bring on the flaming!

Makes sense I guess

What about pregnant women should they pay extra too?

Well the seats take care of it already don't they? I mean it is penalty enough to sit in economy as it is, and much worse if you are over weight as well as being tall. And if you are huge you have to buy an extra seat so there is not much point in a fat tax imo.

It isn't always about "eating less".

There are LOADS of MEDICAL reasons why someone may be overweight.

Could you imagine; "sorry sir, you have a medical condition that you can not help (a disability if you will) but we are going to punish you for your unfortunate medical level and make you pay more than "mr I'm-perfectly-ok" thanks."

Why don't they pick on the food companies - just WHY is it that all the "rollback" food in Asda this week is frozen pizza/chicken pies/burgers... why can't they do deals on fresh, good, "healthy" foods???

I think this tax is a disgrace - targetting the vulnerable, as always.

what about a shortarse airfair discount for people under 5'2"? we take up much less legroom

How many posts today on fatbashing?

I am not a smoker but this kind of attitude towards smoking gets a bit ridiculous, ditto fat people.

We're all a society, it all evens out, get over it.

Oh, good point about pregnant women. I'd be inclined to say no because (a) it's a short term condition (b) it affects relatively few people and (c) it's something that you can't do anything about (unlike being overweight).

Not sure the seats penalise them any more that it penalises those around them (having spent a number of flights with a fellow passenger being squeezed up against me). Besides the plane is still having to carry the extra weight. If they buy an extra seat, that's fair enough of course.

i'm overweight, don't mind a fat tax but would like to see a tax rebate on taking my very small teens at adult prices (all under 9 stone, one is 5ft and weighs 6 stone, full price passenger) or does my overweight cancel out the extra fuel used??

Also, what about large muscular men? Would they have to pay (ex was 6'3 and 18 stone, not an ounce of fat on the man)

Or isn't it discriminating to men as they are usually taller and heavier? or taller women?

How do they judge people being overweight? Will it done on just weight or BMI (which is flawed) Will the underweight get money off??

Not sure how it would all work and don't think it could work

Well, when you ride in a plane, you're paying for space on the plane.

For example, if you sit a child in a seat, even if it doesn't take up the whole seat, you still have to purchase a whole ticket.

So I think if you can't fit in a seat and need two, then you should pay for two.

Really? Well how about exercising more and eating less then

wow - wish i'd lthought of that - well there goes the billion dollar diet industy.

If there's a medical reason, that's also fair enough, but genuine medical reasons apply to the minority. In that case, you'd simply need to produce a certificate from your doctor confirming this.

Do you realise the amount of cargo carried by planes? and how much this weighs?
If you really believe that the odd massively overweight person is going to have ANY effect on the load weight of a plane you need to think again.
So, no flaming from here....the premise of the argument is far too flaky to get worked up about!

Planes might have a limited capacity, but they have always had a limited capacity and there has not been a need for such a tax before.

So what happens when you are obese, but check in next to no luggage? Do that use up your allowance?

Why is the only solution to anything these days a tax?

What I don't like is the way that the article (and your post) seems to talk in such a tone as to imply that the airlines are charitable organisations, flying people around the world for the good feeling it gives them inside. These are companies making billions and the article might just as well be talking about the "poor ikkle airwines can't afford enough fuel"....

As if that customer hasn't paid enough for their ticket

agree you should pay for however seats you use,but a fat tax is laughable and totally unenforceable.

i agree if there is a sliding weight scale - so small children pay fuck all.

i also think that i would be inclined to agree if i wasn;t royally screwed everytime its the kids school holidays

surely then one ought to have under 2s weighed and be charged accordingly to carry them on your lap

cheeky bints thpose auusies

I meant to add your point to my post, JV>

I claim it as mine :P

make them walk and/or swim to their destination
everyone'll be happy then
this is a piss-take, BTW

"In that case, you'd simply need to produce a certificate from your doctor confirming this."

oh so you make it even harder for someone with disabilities to go on holiday, not only to they have to cope with their disability, and the problems they encounter because of it, they also have to go to the inconvinience of making a trip to the Dr.s to get a certificate to prove that they're overweight because of their disability!

Oh, this is utterly irrelevant, but I love this story and thought I'd share. Heard an orchestra manager on the radio once, talking about organising a tour. Tickets were booked for the players, and also seats for things like cellos, etc, that they didn't want to go in the hold. He had to fill in forms for each seat, and so, when asked the age of the cellos, filled in 2, or 100 etc as appropriate, just for fun. Got tickets back, and the 2 year old cello got a half price seat!

Ok. As you were.

PMSL - whether he's telling the truth or not - that's a fabulous story

Ah well, as minouminmou says I was just being little provocative cos the story intrigued me but I'll rise to it...

JV: BA's baggage allowance per person on short haul (having just checked the website) is 23kg. Given that short haul flights carry minimal additional cargo it's fair to say that (a) cargo comprises a far smaller amount of weight than the people on the flight and (b) there are plenty of people who are more than 23kg overweight.

LLPJ: who said that the airlines are charitable organisations? Not me. This is just purely economics.

Why not have an absolute weight limit per seat? If you have a kid with you, you get a massive baggage allowance in recompense. If you're near to but under the limit you get a much smaller allowance. If you're over it, you pay more. If you wanted to make it more complicated you could redistribute the additional amounts being paid to those who were under the limit.

but if you have excess baggage you can more often than not just pay more.......

massive baggage allowance for small children would make sense wouldn't it? I had to pay full price for a 3yo who only weighed 2 stone. Her baggage allowance was not much different, but she certainly got through it.